News from Spoonflower about custom fabric printing, sewing, crafters and crafting. The official blog of Spoonflower.com, a service that prints custom fabric on-demand.

March 2014

March 31, 2014

Warm sunshine, and spring buds popping up here in North Carolina makes me want to sew up some fresh projects worthy of the spring's first soiree. These garden party-themed fabrics are my favorite picks for this season's sun dresses and picnic blankets. See even more spring-flavored fabrics in the Spoonflower marketplace of indie designers!

March 28, 2014

Spring is [finally!] on the horizon in North Carolina, and with sights set on warmer weather and greener scenery, wanderlust has taken hold and I'm dreaming of travel. Whatever the weather in your neck of the woods, here are 5 map projects to celebrate past trips and inspire the routes ahead.

March 27, 2014

Designers turned into mad scientists to whip up these eye-catching experiments for the Spoonflower Science Fair. See who got the highest marks from our judges (you!) and who took home the blue ribbon prize.

March 26, 2014

Sweet Paul Magazine is a quarterly food, craft, and lifestyle magazine that will help you chase the sweet things in life! Each issue is printed on beautiful heavy matte paper and is chock full of the recipes and craft projects that you want to fill your home with.

This week, one lucky winner will receive a subscription to this lovely magazine! Your subscription to Sweet Paul Magazine will begin with their Spring 2014 issue and end with their Holiday 2014 issue.

Enter by Tuesday, April 1st, 2014 for a chance to win! The winner will be announced on the blog on Wednesday, April 2nd. Congrats to Hao Xu-- winner of our Cloth book + Silk fat quarter giveaway!

Don't want to rely on chance to get your hands on a Sweet Paul Magazine subscription? Visit the Sweet Paul online store and use the code SPOONFLOWER to save 10% off of a 2014 subscription!

March 25, 2014

Michelle, Spoonflower team member and sometime-teacher in the Spoonflower Greenhouse, is here visiting the blog today to share a tutorial for the perfect spring project-- stitched shibori. Shibori is a traditional Japanese method for creating patterns on fabric with dye by binding, stitching, folding, or twisting. Stitched shibori allows for greater control when dyeing, and can produce really beautiful results. Fabric dyed with shibori designs can be used for apparel, quilting, or crafting, and your uniquely stitched and dyed creations would also make for a gorgeous start to a digital fabric design!

Thread your needle and tie a knot in one end of your thread. Stitch your fabric. Leave a tail at the end of your stitched line. Simple running stitches can create beautiful designs. Try folding the fabric and then stitching. You can stitch shapes, not just straight lines. Think of these first fabric pieces as samples, the more you experiment the more you will learn.

When you have all of the stitched lines on your fabric, pull the threads as tight as you can and secure them.

Time to set up your dye bath! I used liquid Rit dye in very hot water with a little salt added. The more dye you use, the darker your colors will be.

Dip your samples into the dye bath. I let mine hang out in the dye for about 10 seconds each. Squeeze out the excess dye.

Rinse your fabric while it is still gathered. Start with cold water, and gradually move to warm as your water runs clear.

Cut your thread very carefully. Using a seam ripper is helpful because you are less likely to cut a hole in your fabric. Take your time doing this, because one slip of the scissors can ruin your fabric. Pull out all of the threads, allow your fabric to dry, and admire your design!

Remember, there are no right or wrong answers when dyeing fabric. Have fun! If something doesn’t turn out quite how you want it, try re-stitching a different design and over-dyeing in a darker color.

- Michelle

About Our Guest Author

Michelle is a Spoonflower team member, maker of things, and learner of new crafting skills.

March 23, 2014

One of our favorite parts of having the Greenhouse, our classroom and community space here at our Durahm, NC headquarters, is being able to host sewing events in support of great causes. We are delighted to announce a sew-in date to make pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer, a national organization that brightens the days of seriously ill children facing extended stays in the hospital by providing them with their own beautifully handmade pillowcases.

Please join us in the Greenhouse on Saturday, April 5, from 10am-1pm to sew pillowcases for children in local hospitals! Head over to our event page for full details and to RSVP today! We'll provide fabric and notions for folks to create fun pillowcases to donate to our local chapter of ConKerr Cancer!

If you'd like to make some pillowcases ahead of time, or if you'd like to organize your own pillowcase sew-in to support local hospitals, you can follow this quick and easy tutorial provided by ConKerr Cancer. Information about supporting ConKerr Cancer in your area can be found here, along with great resources and instructions for all of the ways you can contribute. If you're planning an event to support ConKerr Cancer in another area, please do let us know in the comments below. We love sharing fun sewing events with our community!

We look forward to seeing you here (or there!) to sew for a great cause!

To back up, Brooklyn Craft Company is a new space in Brooklyn that offers modern craft and DIY classes for adults. We do a little bit of everything, from sewing and knitting to glass etching, terrariums, jewelry, and special crafting events like Brooklyn Craft Camp.

March 22, 2014

Our pillowcase dress sew-in and collection drive for a new orphanage in the Philippines was a huge success! With donations rolling in from afar and 47 dresses completed at February's sew-in right here in the Greenhouse, our classroom and community space, we filled two giant boxes with 124 beautifully handmade dresses to send to our friends in charge of building this new orphanage! Carmen Baugh, the organizer of our drive and sew-in, created this excellent tutorial & template to create these dresses if you'd like to make some for any special little girls in your life or an organization close to your heart.

Thank you, Carmen!

Thank you so very much to everyone who contributed to this amazing effort! And a very special thank you to Carmen for organizing, and for those of you who took time to sew and send even more dresses on your own outside of our sew-in. We have never seen so many precious dresses in one place, and we are so happy to know that some little girls in the Philippines will have bright, beautiful, and lovingly-sewn dresses to wear.

March 21, 2014

Spoonflower engineering team member Beth sewed this unbelievably simple (no, really!) maxi dress out of our new Modern Jersey just in time for the first day of spring! She used two yards of jersey fabric designed by Katarina Roccella (check out this design in a similar colorway). This project is so very quick to make, and you don't have to hem the edges since jersey doesn't fray.

The growing season is upon us and as someone seriously lacking a green thumb, I'm always on the look out for fun and simple ways to get my garden on! Check out these easy DIYs to add a little life to your weekend.

March 20, 2014

The Spoonflower staff had just one hour and a collection of mystery materials to create their fabric designs for the Staff Design Challenge!

We've been on pins and needles waiting to find out whose design got the most votes....And we're very excited to announce that Allie Tate of the marketing team has taken top prize with her minty floral design! Want to know who else made the cut? Check out the this week's top ten designs.

March 19, 2014

This week we are excited to giveaway a copy of Cloth: 30+ Projects to Sew from Linen, Cotton, Silk, Wool and Hide-- a brand new beautiful book released just yesterday! Handmade cloth items always have a story, and many of us spend our lives hunting and gathering precious pieces and scraps to add that final touch of life to a special room or outfit. Cloth is an inspirational guide to the beauty, history, and utility of natural textiles. Woven throughout the five main sections—cotton, wool, silk, linen, and hide—are more than 30 breathtaking sewing projects that make the most of each textile’s properties.

One lucky winner will take home a copy of Cloth along with five silk crepe de chine fat quarters to sew up silk scrap wheat bags, a simple project included in the book and shared below!

Enter by Tuesday, March 25th, 2014 for a chance to win! The winner will be announced on the Spoonflower blog on Wednesday, March 26th. Congratulations to Layne Weldon-- winner of our spring fat quarter bundle giveaway!

March 18, 2014

Want to learn how to turn your own sewing patterns into digital files to print full-sized on high quality paper? Today, independent clothing designer and Spoonflower team member Jamie Powell visits the blog to show you how to take your own hand-drafted patterns and create digital files to print on a roll of inexpensive gift wrap either for your own garment making or to sell your pattern designs.

This tutorial will walk you through the process of turning your hand drawn sewing pattern into a digital file using Photoshop. Some basic knowledge of Photoshop is helpful, but there are only a handful of tools that are used in this tutorial, so you don’t need to be an expert. The example I use is a raglan sleeve shirt pattern that I’ve been interested in offering for sale. Digitizing your patterns is a great way to get them clean and professional looking, and even if you’re not trying to turn your projects into profits, it’s a great way to preserve your patterns and make them easy to share with friends.

March 17, 2014

This past weekend, we were delighted to be a part of the annual Make A Blanket Day put on by our local chapter of Project Linus in Raleigh, NC. Project Linus is an organization devoted to comforting kids and teens facing serious illness and trauma with a gift of their own handmade security blanket. Since our local chapter was founded by Susie Holmes in 1996, area "blanketeers" have donated over 27,000blankets to local agencies and hospitals. Their recent Make A Blanket Day was a huge success, and we were so excited to present our finished quilting bee blanket created by members of our Greenhouse community!

This morning to start the event, we were honored to see our good friends from Quilts of Valor presenting three veterans with quilts to honor their military service. With so many friends from our local community particpating this weekend, we're so excited to spend our weekend at the show. Please do stop by and say hello!

March 14, 2014

We're loving these DIYs full of lucky clovers! These shamrock crafts are simple enough to make this weekend just in time for St. Patrick's Day, and each project is just right for grown up revelries and kid-friendly parties alike.